Recent changes have taken effect as to what weight the Florida Board of Bar Examiners will give to community service submitted as evidence in Character and Fitness Hearings before the Board. A recent Florida Supreme Court case now requires that the time logs be submitted and signed off on with detailed notes of what was done for the hours spent. Historically one could get a “thank you” letter from a supervisor at an organization that would total up the hours but now the Board wants to see the details of each day, what was done, and have the supervisor sign off on it regularly.

All character and fitness hearings before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners whether they are Investigate Hearings, Formal Hearings, or Rehabilitative Hearings the burden is always on the Applicant to prove that he or she possesses the requested character and fitness to practice law in the state of Florida. If one finds themselves before this investigative tribunal obviously something happened in your past that is being called into question. The Board has to weigh the good character evidence against the bad character evidence and there are few better ways to outweigh bad evidence than by loading up on community service hours.

One may wonder what kind of community service the Board of Bar Examiners deems relevant.  anything not career advancing such as volunteering at the Public Defender’s office or a legal internship that’s unpaid would carry no weight since it is career advancing and not true community service. The only legal related community service that could be used to mitigate the bad character evidence is the Guardian Ad Litem Program. This is the only legal related program that the Florida Supreme Court has given credit to Applicants to the Florida Bar as mitigating evidence.

If you are facing a hearing and know that you have some bad character evidence to overcome I would recommend doing community service to overcome it but document it in such a way that each activity is accounted for and signed off on a regular or semi regular basis or you run the risk of the Board of Bar Examiners giving it no weight at all.

Always consider hiring an experience Florida Bar Defense Lawyer to be your advocate at the hearing and make sure that you comply with all evidentiary rules and engage in meaningful discovery before the hearing so there are no surprises that you didn’t prepare for the day of. Lars Soreide, Esq., has appeared before the Florida Board of Bar Examiners in Character and Fitness hearings hundreds of times on behalf of Applicants and travels to each hearing location of the Board so geography is not a concern. Call 888-760-6552 for a free consultation with a Florida Board of Bar Examiners Defense Attorney today to make sure you are prepared for your character and fitness hearing.